1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gateway device, a network system and a data converting method applied to a vehicle using a plurality of network protocols different from each other; and, more particularly, to a gateway device, a network system and a data converting method capable of integratedly managing and distributively controlling networks with reliability by exchanging data between networks using protocols different from each other.
2. Background of the Related Art
As public vehicles such as automobiles and buses, or military vehicles (hereinafter, referred to as ‘vehicle’) become to gradually develop in function and quality, the demand for the intelligent technology of the vehicles has been increased.
Generally, in order to realize an intelligent vehicle, state information such as a position or a speed of the vehicle and environmental information for the outside of the vehicle should be recognized and detected in real time, and the vehicle should be controlled semiautomatically or automatically so as to prevent an accident.
For this reason, the intelligent vehicles requires intelligent sensing and control algorithms such as a driver assistance system for controlling a part of the vehicle for driver's convenience or a collision warning system for providing information to a driver and warning an endangerment. In particular, as the intelligent vehicle has been evolved to a high level, the number of additional electronic components such as an acceleration sensor, a temperature sensor, a radar sensor, various control motor and the like of the vehicle also has been rapidly increased.
A vehicle wiring system (Harness system) in which an electronic component such as a sensor or an actuator, an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) or a switch is one-on-one connected to each other by the use of cables was applied to an initial intelligent vehicle. An increment in the number of electronic components or switches led to an increment in the number of cables, thereby inducing the complexity of a wiring system, making maintenance of the vehicle or addition of new functions difficult and increasing the weight of the vehicle to lower a driving performance by increasing the weight thereof.
In order to solve these problems, an in-vehicle network system in which the electronic components, the ECU and the switch are connected to each other by the use of long and fine shared cables had been proposed and studied. As a result, a LIN (Local Interconnect Network) protocol and a CAN (Controller Area Network) protocol which are network protocols for vehicle control had been developed. Further, a FlexRay protocol has been recently developed.
As the in-vehicle network system has been developed and actually applied to the vehicle, various electronic components developed for driver's convenience and safety become easy to install without modifying the vehicle wiring system, a vehicle performance such as a fuel efficiency is improved due to a decrease in the number of used cables, and concomitant effects such as securement of an additional space or simplification of an assembly process and an increment in maintenance efficiency are obtained.
However, there was a restriction to use one network protocol for forming a network for communication between the electronic components in the conventional in-vehicle network system. That is to say, data can be interchanged between two or more network systems using the same network protocol, but the data cannot be interchanged between network systems using network protocols different from each other due to data structures of each network protocols different from each other.
Accordingly, in case that a plurality of network systems are applied to the interior of the vehicle, there is a restriction to use the same network protocol between network systems requiring interchange of the data and there is a demerit that the efficiency in configuration of the in-vehicle network system will decrease.
Also, in case that data interchange is required between two network systems using network protocols different from each other, which are designed on the assumption that the data is not interchanged between the two systems, there is an inconvenience that one network system should be redesigned to match with the other network protocol.